Work has changed.

The rules around it haven't.

Experienced professionals increasingly build careers across more than one kind of work. They may have a full-time role while teaching, consulting or advising. Others combine part-time positions, fractional leadership, projects and independent work. Some want to stay professionally engaged after retirement without returning to a traditional full-time job.

But most hiring platforms are still built around a simple assumption: one professional, one employer, one job.

Red Stapler was created to challenge that assumption.

We're building a marketplace where non-exclusive professional work is explicit from the beginning, giving professionals more control over their careers and employers access to expertise they might otherwise never reach.

A rustic outdoor wooden desk holding a laptop, a backpack, a black water bottle, a white dice, a pair of sunglasses, a cup, an open notebook, a closed notebook, and a pen. The desk is on a balcony with a bamboo railing, overlooking a tropical bay with boats, lush green hills, and mountains in the background during sunset.

What we believe

  • Careers belong to people.

    Your employer can hire your time, expertise and commitment without owning your entire professional life.

  • Great talent doesn't have to be exclusive.

    Organizations shouldn't have to choose between hiring someone full-time and going without their expertise entirely.

  • Freedom comes with responsibility.

    Non-exclusive work still requires professionalism, performance, confidentiality and respect for the commitments you've made.

  • Transparency makes it work.

    Outside professional work shouldn't need to be hidden. Expectations, boundaries and potential conflicts should be clear from the beginning.

Why Red Stapler?

The red stapler has been part of our story for a surprisingly long time.

When our founder was eight years old, she bought her first stapler. It was red and white, and to a kid who already knew she wanted to be a professional someday, having her own stapler felt like a very big deal. She even wrote the date on the box of staples she bought with it. In 1988.

Nearly four decades later, she still has the stapler. And, remarkably, she's still working her way through the same box of 5,000 staples.

The red stapler took on another meaning as a small homage to one of our favourite movies of all time and its wonderfully absurd take on corporate life, from endless bosses to the changing desk that somehow always takes the stapler along with it.

Those two stories came together in Red Stapler.

It's a name that connects where a career starts with how work can evolve. Because the desire to do meaningful professional work can last a lifetime, but that doesn't mean our careers have to fit into the same traditional model forever.

Work can change. Careers can change. And sometimes the stapler comes with you.